Edition 91 Monday, February 3, 2014 FE Week...

1Monday, February 3, 2014 @FEWeekEdition 91

Fis nightmare hits SFR — Page 2 Employer Skills Survey — Page 8

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As many as 1,500 qualifi cations face the public funding axe as the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) looks to introduce a 15-credit threshold.

The SFA has published a list of 1,477 Quali-fi cation and Credit Framework (QCF) level two to four qualifi cations which it says will not be approved for funding in 2014/15.

It aims to make funding only available to qualifi cations of at least 15 credits (one credit equates to 10 hours’ learning), despite draft proposals late last year in which qualifi ca-tions had to be of at 12 credits. The change means that certifi cates — not just lower-cred-ited awards — will be hit.

Jill Lanning, Federation of Awarding Bodies (FAB) chief executive, said: “We are naturally concerned that the new rules and the resultant signifi cant reduction in the number of qualifi cations eligible for public funding will have serious implications for

awarding bodies but also for the breath of the offer available to providers and learners.

“FAB will continue to represent its mem-bers’ views in our on-going discussions with the Skills Funding Agency as the implica-tions of these changes become clearer.”

The move comes after a review by BAE Systems group managing director Nigel Whitehead late last year, in which he sug-gested 95 per cent of the adult vocational market’s 19,000-plus qualifi cations could be axed in a bid to “de-clutter the system”.

Nevertheless, 15-credit announcement came via a statement on the SFA website while the sector awaits the Skills Funding Statement.

It said on the SFA website: “This is a list of QCF qualifi cations from level two to four approved for funding for 2013/14 but which do not meet the new size business rule of 15 credits for level two to four qualifi cations, and are therefore not approved for 2014/15.

“Awarding organisations may notify that

they wish the agency to consider funding a qualifi cation below 15 credits.”

Among the awarding organisations with qualifi cations named in the list is apt awards, which has seven qualifi cations on the list.

Chief executive Christine Bullock said she had a team analysing the impact the cull would have.

She said: “It is something we were aware of and we are analysing the document as we speak.”

City & Guilds has 289 qualifi cations at risk. A spokesperson said: “We will look into the information further and work with the SFA accordingly.”

It comes after a cull of more than 1,800 adult qualifi cations that had little or no up-take was reported by FE Week last Septem-ber. The SFA axed the funding for a host of awards, from entry level to level four, as part of its New Streamlined Funding System for Adult Skills in August.

Among the qualifi cations hit were City &

Guilds’ level one award in creative tech-niques in jewellery — personalised key fob and the Royal Society for Public Health’s level two award in health promotion.

Ms Lanning, from FAB, said: “The SFA outlined its thinking [on latest cull] to our members at a couple of forums last Autumn which did indicate restrictions on funding based on the size of qualifi cations so our members have waiting to see what this would mean in practice.

“It is no secret that public funding and therefore the SFA’s budget is being squeezed and they have been developing their new ap-proach over the past few months.”

She added: “Our members will now be working through this very detailed document to understand what it means for them.

“It is important to remember that a sig-nifi cant number of qualifi cations are already taken by learners who fi nance themselves or are supported by their employers.”

See editor’s comment on page 6

[email protected]

@FCDWhittaker

Phil Frier completes a trek to Everest Base Camp

Monday, February 3, 2014Edition 91

www.feweek.co.uk

EDITIONS TO GO

Shock funding cut for 1,500 adult qualsWarning of ‘serious implications’ over 15-credit threshold

National Audit Office overload warning for EFA

Page 6Profile of principal of troubled K College

Page 7

This is what a man under pressure looks like



3Monday, February 3, 2014 @FEWeekFE Week www.feweek.co.uk Edition 91Monday, February 3, 20142

More than a dozen former employees of welfare to work provider A4e are due to appear in court charged with fraud.

The eight women and five men are due at Reading Crown Court on Monday, February 3, for a plea and case management hearing.

They face allegations including conspiracy to defraud, making a false instrument and supplying articles for use in fraud, dating from February 2009.

It is alleged they forged documentation to support fraudulent claims for reward payments from the Department for Work and Pensions under the Aspire to Inspire programme, which ended in 2011.

A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: “Under the terms of the contract, payments were made when the scheme successfully placed individuals in employment.

“It is alleged that many of the reward payments related either to people who never attended A4e or to clients whom A4e had not successfully placed in employment. The contract was to deliver motivation and training and to assist people to find employment.”

The case comes amid revelations that A4e, one of the UK’s largest welfare to work

providers, suffered an £11.5m pre-tax loss last year.

Company accounts also show revenues fell by 14 per cent to £167.1m in the 12 months to last March.

And the company owes £17m to the Co-operative Bank and the Royal Bank of Scotland, and has extended the loan until the end of 2015.

Company owner Emma Harrison resigned as chairwoman and also gave up her role as Prime Minister David Cameron’s back-to-work tsar following the fraud allegations.

Ms Harrison, who still owns 85 per cent of the company, has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Account manager Ines Cano-Uribe, aged 37, of Madrid, Spain, and administrator Zahar Khalil, 34, of Dolphin Road, Slough, are charged with 55 counts of making false instruments, one count of conspiracy to cheat and defraud, two counts of making and supplying articles for use in fraud and two counts of possessing and controlling articles for use in fraud.

They are joined by recruiters Charles McDonald, 43, of Derwent Road, Egham, Nikki Foster, of High Tree Drive, Reading and Aditi Sigh, of Elmshott Lane, Slough, both 30, and Julie Grimes, 51, of Monks Way, Staines.

Bindiya Dholiwar, 27, of Reddington Drive, Slough, Dean Lloyd, 37, of Rochfords, Coffee Hall, Milton Keynes, and Yasmin Ahmed, 39,

of Colchester Road, of Southend on Sea, are also charged.

They were charged in September, and a further charge against Cano-Uribe and four more defendants was announced in December.

Cano-Uribe was also charged with one count conspiracy to make false instruments. The same charge was put to quality co-ordinator Sarah Hawkins, 31, of Bagshot, Surrey, operations manager Serge Wyett, 39, of Richmond, team leader Matthew Hannigan-Train, 29, of Bristol and recruiter Hayley Wilson, 26, of Springfield in Milton Keynes.

They were also due to appear in court this week.

An A4e spokesperson said: “The alleged incidents all relate to old paper-based contracts which used systems that have since been replaced.

“We are fully co-operating with the police to ensure the investigation can be concluded quickly and are therefore unable to comment further on an ongoing enquiry.”

[Proceeding]

Key information designed to “hold the govern-ment to account over delivery of policy” has been corrupted by ongoing problems with new funding software.

The latest Statistical First Release (SFR), out on Thursday, January 30, included a host of important information based on providers’ data.

However, they’ve struggled to submit learner numbers, course details and other key information because of ongoing troubles with new Skills Funding Agency (SFA) software.

And now the problems are affecting the SFR, which acknowledged issues with a note: “There is evidence of increased data lag for the first three months of 2013/14 compared to the same period of the previous year.”

Among the statistics most affected by the software problem appears to have been provi-sional data on the number of apprenticeship starts for the first quarter (August to October) of the current academic year.

They showed an unexpected 19 per cent drop for intermediate level apprenticeships (which are not subject to FE loans). There were 90,800 starts during the first quarter of 2012/13 (ac-cording to provisional figures published in

January last year), compared to just 73,500 during the same period in 2013/14.

Stephen Hewitt, Morley College’s strate-gic funding, enrolments and examinations manager, said: “The problems with the new funding software are clearly starting to distort the FE figures, as shown in the SFR.

“Providers will obviously do our best to get the figures right for the next round of figures, but this is likely to continue for the next few months.”

Lindsay McCurdy, from Apprentice-ships4England, said: “The software is not fit for purpose at the present time and is obvi-ously contorting the figures, which you can clearly see with intermediate level apprentice-ship starts. Urgent action is need to rectify these problems.”

A spokesperson for the SFA and BIS admit-ted there had been “data collection issues” affecting the “validity” of the SFR. However, he declined to comment further on the cause of the SFR problem. Nor did he comment on what actions BIS or the SFA was taking to rectify the software situation.

A statement explaining the importance of the SFR on the Data Service website states: “Its aim is to present the performance of the FE system, and to hold the government to ac-count over delivery of policy.”

Shadow skills minister Liam Byrne said:

“The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills [BIS] is bringing the same shambolic ap-proach we saw in student finance to collecting figures for apprentices — this can’t go on.

“Ministers must come clean and tell us the full extent of these ‘data collection issues’, what they estimate the genuine figures are and what they’re doing to ensure this never happens again.”

The SFA and Data Service’s new Funding Information System (Fis) software is behind providers’ data submission headache.

It should have been available in August last year, but was not released until November — and providers say it is still giving unreliable funding data reports.

The government’s Learning Aim Reference System (Lars) online search engine should also have been available by last August.

It is supposed to help providers’ manage-ment information system (MIS) officers check whether qualifications are eligible for funding, and how much per learner providers should receive.

However, it is still not available and provid-ers are having to use Lars Lite instead — a temporary downloadable database from the SFA that providers claim is also producing unreliable data.

The Association of Colleges and 157 Group declined to comment.

Two former education and skills secretaries joined the charge against a controversial funding cut for 18-year-old learners as Skills Minister Matthew Hancock was grilled by MPs in a special debate on the issue.

Former Education Secretary David Blunkett (pictured left) and former Skills Secretary John Denham (pictured right) joined the Westminster Hall debate over plans to cut the full-time education funding rate for 18-year-olds by 17.5 per cent on Tuesday.

The Department for Education has faced criticism over the proposed cut and an impact assessment behind it.

Mr Denham, who held the now-defunct Skills Secretary for two years post under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, said: “It is not entirely clear, now that these students are going to be funded by about £700 a-year less than other students, whether the minister thinks that colleges should continue to support these students in their third year to the same quality of education despite not having the money — or whether the minister wants these colleges only to offer these students two years of education?

“The consequence of this decision is to

concentrate the cuts on a sub-set of colleges, and in particular that is those colleges which are in areas with historically weaker school performance because those areas will throw out more able students who require a third year to get to level three or A-level. It has the effect of concentrating the cut on areas with a higher than average level of deprivation.”

During the debate, several MPs questioned why the impact assessment had taken so long to be released. It showed that FE colleges will be among the worst-hit of all institutions — with an average reduction in funding of 3 per cent.

For land-based colleges it’s 2.5 per cent, for commercial and charitable providers it’s 1.5 per cent, and for sixth form colleges it’s 1.2 per cent.

But for school sixth forms it’s just 0.4 per cent. However, the report does not say how much cash the funding rate cut, due next academic year, is expected to save. The Association of Colleges is among those to have objected to the cut, estimating that it could save the government £150m.

And Mr Blunkett, who was Education and Employment Secretary for four years under Prime Minister Tony Blair, said the impact assessment had concerned colleges in his Sheffield constituency.

He said: “Sheffield College and Sheffield Longley Park Sixth Form College are somewhat bewildered as to who could possibly have undertaken an impact assessment that so grievously missed the point of what it is going to do to young people from the most disadvantaged backgrounds.”

Labour MP Kate Green, who organised the debate, raised further concerns about the impact the funding rate cut would have before Mr Hancock defended the cut in response to Shadow Junior Education Minister Rushanara Ali.

She had described the way the decision had been made as “reckless and irresponsible”.

Mr Hancock said: “We are faced with a cut across the government to make savings to reach the goals we have to reduce budget deficit.

“It is difficult being a minister when there’s no money left, but we all know whose fault that is.”

He told MPs that the reduction would take funding for 18-year-olds back to 2012/13 levels, but he admitted the decision to target older learners “wasn’t easy”.

Plans for a new college to train nuclear power plant workers have sparked concerns among colleges who had been hoping to deliver training for the industry themselves.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock was at the PoliticsHome Skills Summit in London on Tuesday (January 28) when he announced the proposals. He said the new college could “provide the specialist, advanced skills” for the nuclear industry.

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) later told FE Week the location of the new college had not been “established”.

The announcement caused raised eyebrows at Bridgwater College, in Somerset, where principal Mike Robbins has spent the last three years planning for and developing training facilities and courses for workers set to help build a new nuclear power station at nearby Hinkley Point by 2023.

Mr Robbins told FE Week: “We are awaiting further details, but would hope to play as full a part in any discussions as possible. We have invested much of our own time, effort and resources in preparing for the new nuclear build on our doorstep and in developing plans with contractors and other colleges and training providers in the region to meet the skills and training needs of the project.”

Another provider that could be affected by the plans is South Gloucestershire & Stroud College. It has submitted proposals with local enterprise partnership gfirst (Growing Gloucestershire) to develop a renewable energy, engineering and nuclear skills training centre at the decommissioned

Berkeley power station, in Gloucestershire.A spokesperson for the college declined

to comment on whether its plans could be undermined by the proposed nuclear college.

Mr Hancock’s announcement came just weeks after the government unveiled proposals to create a new college, the first since colleges were incorporated in 1993, to support the engineering skills needed for the new HS2 rail project.

He said he wanted it to be an “elite centre” like the nuclear college.

“In the next 20 years, some £930bn will be spent across the world on new nuclear reactors — and £250bn on decommissioning old ones. In Britain alone, 40,000 jobs could be created,” said Mr Hancock.

“So the new college will build on the industry’s work — and provide the specialist, advanced skills to meet that demand — and then sell that expertise to the world.”

Bridgwater College has already invested more than £2m of its own money on its scheme and attracted millions more from outside organisations. Among the investors was French firm EDF Energy, which will build the new facility. Its managing director, Humphrey Cadoux-Hudson, was quoted in a BIS press release on the new nuclear college plans announced by Mr Hancock.

Mr Robbins said: “Although many of our programmes, qualifications and facilities have been designed to meet local demand, some are designed to meet industry needs on a national scale, and it wouldn’t make sense to replicate them. The extent to which a new national nuclear college would impact on this work would therefore largely depend on its intended purpose, how it will operate and where it is located.”

See Mr Robbins’ expert piece on page 10

Concerns over nuclear college plans

@KatieSchmuecker

34 per cent of employers don’t offer training why not? Cost and time the biggest barriers

@Will_Brompton

not surprised, graduate engineer starting salary £32k, not enough graduates; must #inspirethefuture!

@VikiFaulkner

Proportion of staff trained has risen substantially (great) but staff are getting fewer days of training and investment decreasing

@EEF_Economists

First question: facing skills shortages in engineering so time to get more women into engineering-big @bisgovuk to make this happen

@Reemalhotra

Skills underpin EVERYTHING - eg. to build affordable housing and tackle poverty & inequality, we need good engineers

Learning & Skills Events, Consultancy and Training Ltd

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Learning & Skills Events, Consultancy and Training Ltd

161-165 Greenwich High RoadLondon SE10 8JAT: 020 8123 4778E: [email protected]

Software problems ‘distorting’ key statistics

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Edition 91

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Managing director: Shane Mann

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Skills conferenceApprenticeship providers looking to expand overseas have been invited to a Skills Funding Agency conference in March.

It is set to feature FE and skills sector speak-ers, covering worldwide trends in vocational education.

The event takes place in London during Na-tional Apprenticeship Week on Friday, March 7 and is free to attend for any agency-funded apprenticeship provider.

Email [email protected] for more details.

FE Week news in brief

Certification rejectedSkills Minister Matthew Hancock has rejected a national work readiness certification scheme for young people.

Replying to a written ministerial ques-tion from Labour’s Ann McKechin MP, Mr Hancock said: “The issue of work readiness is already being addressed through the introduc-tion of traineeships and the publication of approved lists of qualifications recognised by employers as leading to an occupation.”

He added more tech levels would be pub-lished later this year.

DfE work experienceThe government has revealed that 107 people have undertaken work experience at the De-partment for Education (DfE) since 2010.

Across financial years 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13, DfE also took on 44 apprentices.

And in this financial year, DfE employed 15 apprentices from the Civil Service Apprentice-ship Scheme, taking on another 15 in Septem-ber.

Since 2011, 19 Cabinet Office and the White-hall paid interns and three expenses-only Cabinet Office’s interns have worked in DfE.

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Former provider staff due in court on host of fraud charges

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Ex-Cabinet Secretaries wade in on 18 funding cut debate

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Learner support after closure blowCollege leaders and employers are still working with the government to resolve issues caused by the closure of a training restaurant in Plymouth.

The Restaurant Academy closed on January 17, and its parent company Synergy Training South West is said to be meeting with creditors over its future.

The closure of the restaurant left two apprentices from K College, and 15 from Sussex Coast College Hastings effectively out of work.

The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) and City College Plymouth, which has its own training restaurant, are attempting to contact the 17 affected learners to continue their training.

A Sussex Coast College spokesperson said: “As a result of the Restaurant Academy closing, 15 learners were made redundant.”

He added: “We are working with City College Plymouth to support and help those affected by the situation.”

Despite repeated attempts to contact Synergy Training, FE Week phone calls to its Devon headquarters went unanswered. The Companies Check website lists the organisation’s status as “meeting of creditors”.

A K College spokesperson said: “Since the restaurant closed we’ve spoken directly to our apprentices, the SFA and City College Plymouth to secure and protect our learners and help them to complete their qualifications.”

4 FE Week www.feweek.co.ukMonday, February 3, 2014

Just a fraction of the 25,200 FE loans taken out between August and October last year were for apprenticeships, government figures have revealed.

The Statistical First Release (SFR) on Thurs-day, January 30, showed that less than 0.4 per cent (100) of the loans paid out to learners over 24 were given to apprentices.

And, taking on board application figures for the period, just one-in-four apprentice ap-plicants took out a loan.

But the SFR, which for the first time shows FE loans uptake, contained further damning figures for the FE apprentice loan system.

Its provisional data showed that 2,800 people aged 25 or over started an advanced or higher level apprenticeship between August and October.

The figures compare to the provisional num-ber of 24,000 in the same period in 2012 — a fall of more than 88 per cent.

It has reinforced the view among

sector leaders that extending the scheme to ap-prentices was a

mistake and comes

just over a month after Business Secretary Vince Cable told FE Week that apprentice FE loans were being scrapped.

However, they continue to be processed by the Student Loans Company.

David Hughes, National Institute for Adult Continuing Education chief executive, said: “We have always had concerns about this policy and it quickly became evident that it was not working.

“This has been highlighted today by the substantial fall in the number of people, aged 25 and over, who are on advanced and higher level apprenticeships.

“These provisional figures are just 12 per cent of those reported at this level last year.

“We are pleased the government has decided to scrap loans for advanced and higher level apprenticeships, but we are anxious to see what will replace them.

“We need clarity on the funding arrange-ments so that more people over 24 will be able to take advantage of the opportunities these apprenticeships offer.”

A spokesperson at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills declined to answer questions about the fall in 25+ ap-prentice numbers or comment the possibility it was linked to the loans debacle.

He said: “These are provisional figures and we have had some data collection issues which affects the validity and makes it dif-ficult to draw conclusions.

“It is important to know that we will have fuller and more accurate data at the end of the year.”

He was also unable to confirm when loans would stop being processed for apprentices.

The SFR figures came the same day as monthly FE loan application numbers were published.

They showed that of the 2,021 loan appli-cation made in December, just 162 were for apprenticeships.

It means the total number of application since the scheme started in April was 57,205 — of which 695, or 1.2 per cent, were for ap-prenticeships.

National Union of Students president Toni Pearce said: “Asking adults to pay up to £4,000 a year to study for A-levels, BTecs and even to work as apprentices was always the wrong way to go, and hugely unfair to people who want to study or re-skill later in life.

“Such sky-high fees are clearly a major deterrent for many adults who wish to study in further education.”

Ofsted and the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) have teamed up to share examples of good practice in vocational teaching and learning with a new set of case studies.

Ten best practice examples, in which workplace-relevant skills were key, were released having been handpicked by a panel of experts, including members from the Commission on Adult Vocational Teaching and Learning (CAVTL), Ofsted, the UK Commission for Employment and Skills and London’s Institute of Education.

Among the case studies are successes in theatrical, special effects, hair and media make-up training at Leeds City College and hospitality and catering at Exeter College’s Michael Caines Academy.

They were compiled in response to a CAVTL report, called “It’s about work”, which focused on excellent vocational teaching and learning and identified underpinning design and delivery processes.

Leeds City College principal Peter Roberts said: “We are delighted to have been selected to be included in this best practice showcase.

“We work hard to achieve the best possible outcomes for our learners and we hope that by reaching a wider audience this example helps others to achieve similar results.”

Exeter College head of hospitality and

catering Tricia Pugsley said: “The students not only gain vocational skills from this training, but because of the way we work with employers and industry they come away with a clearer understanding of the skills needed for the work place and a genuinely more visible route into employment.”

Ofsted director of FE and skills Matthew Coffey said: “We were keen to trial an innovative approach to identifying good practice case studies and we have been pleased to work with CAVTL and the ETF on the development of these case studies.

“I would encourage vocational teachers, trainers and leaders in all types of providers to take a look at the case studies and the practical resources they include, and to consider how they might adapt them to their own contexts.”

Frank McLoughlin, CAVTL chair and City and Islington College principal, said: “We greatly appreciated Ofsted’s interest in further exploring some of the key dimensions of excellent vocational teaching and learning.

“I hope these case studies will shine a light on some of the genuinely world-class provision within our vocational education and training system, and encourage us all

to learn with and from each other as we continue to raise the status and improve the quality and impact of vocational teaching and learning.”

David Russell, ETF chief executive, said: “Our role is to enhance the professionalism of the education and training workforce. Enabling colleagues to learn from each other’s practice is at the heart of our approach.

“We are delighted to be working with Ofsted, sector partners and the organisations showcased in this publication. Sharing widely great examples of excellent and innovative practice is a simple but effective way we will help the sector to improve outcomes for learners and employers.”

Visit the FE Week website for the full list of case studies, including links to each publication.

it’s what we do.

We’ll give you dedicated customer support, a wide range of qualifications to build your programmes of study and valuable, enriching courses for your learners. Find out why our Study Programmes are different.

Call: 0191 239 8000Email: [email protected]: ncfe.org.uk

different.

10302.3 NCFE ADS 261x345mm.indd 2 24/01/2014 12:34

Fraction of FE loans paid out for apprenticeships

Case studies highlight workplace [email protected]@FCDWhittaker

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Worries over HMRC funding proposalThe Association of Employment and Learn-ing Providers (AELP) has raised concerns over the government’s proposals to direct funding for apprenticeships straight to employers.

Chancellor George Osborne, in the Autumn statement, said a new funding model would use Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) systems to route funding directly to employers.

And AELP’s position paper for an upcom-ing government technical review on the proposals was seen by FE Week.

Stewart Segal, AELP chief executive, said: “The government’s proposal on funding could potentially create a barrier for small and medium-sized enterprises.

“The majority of apprentices are in a workplace with only one or two other ap-prentices so to put in all that infrastructure is a lot for just two learners.”

The document also expresses concerns about whether the government would con-tribute to funding for 17 and 18-year-olds.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) consulted on apprentice-ships funding last year following the Doug Richard Review which recommended greater employer ownership of the appren-ticeship system.

A BIS spokesperson could not say when the technical consultation would be launched.

Michael Caine with students

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7Monday, February 3, 2014Edition 91 @FEWeekFE Week www.feweek.co.ukMonday, February 3, 20146

The Skills Funding Agency said in its weekly update that it could not announce funding rules for next year until BIS published the now well overdue annual Skills Funding Statement (SFS).

It might therefore come as a surprise to learn that on the same day the agency said this, it announced a significant funding rule anyway.

The new rule states level two, three or four qualifications below 15 QCF credits will no longer be funded.

Could it be the SFA could not wait any longer, and the SFS information blockage is starting to leak?

Providers, who try to plan and advertise their courses well in advance, should be the first to be informed.

Instead, this significant funding change was to be found in new ‘business rules’ for awarding organisations, like it was perfectly normal and to be expected.

Without FE Week bringing the change to the attention of providers, how long before they would have realised?

The SFS (still not out at the time of going to press) serves to communicate such changes. It cannot come soon enough.

A government investigation into the Educa-tion Funding Agency has warned it could become “overloaded” as fi nancial constraints, staffi ng diffi culties and an increased workload take hold.

The National Audit Offi ce has published the fi ndings of its investigation, launched in June last year into whether the agency was “prepared to meet future challenges”.

It said funding and assurance responsibili-ties along with a host of other new considera-tions had been transferred to the agency — formed in 2012 — from its predecessors by the Department for Education (DfE).

It also said the agency aimed to reduce administration costs by 14.6 per cent, from £53.6m in 2012-13 to £45.8m in 2015-16.

The report further warned that agency “customers”, including colleges, local authori-ties and academies, would increase in number by around 50 per cent to almost 12,000 between 2012-13 and 2015-16. But, based on planned staff numbers, the report said, the ratio of customers to each agency staff member could rise from 10:1 to 13:1.

National Audit Offi ce head Amyas Morse said: “Given the agency’s expanding remit and rapidly growing customer base, it must now bring together its existing improvement plans and quickly implement an operat-ing model capable of dealing with the new demands.

“Our experience of similar bodies in other sectors suggests that the agency might oth-erwise become overloaded, to the detriment of its own performance and risking value for money across the education system.”

The report acknowledged increased closer working between the agency and DfE, and confi rmed the agency had “managed opera-tional challenges to meet most of the limited performance indicators it had set”.

But it said it had failed to meet expectations in other areas and called for the agency to pro-duce a “roadmap for change”.

It added that the DfE and the agency needed to, “jointly assess the capacity of the agency before the DfE allocates new responsibilities, to prevent overburdening the agency”.

Public Accounts Committee chair Margaret Hodge told of her concern at the fi ndings of the investigation.

She said: “I fail to see how the agency can reduce costs by 15 per cent while simultane-

ously expecting to see a 50 per cent increase in demand for its services.

“There is a real danger that the agency will simply become overloaded, putting at risk the value for money it achieves from its £51bn of funding.”

A DfE spokesperson told FE Week: “We are pleased that the audit offi ce has recognised the good work that the agency has done to meet the challenges of the expansion of its role and the growth in the number of acad-emies.

“The agency has built new systems so it can operate more effectively and oversee a system of fi nancial accountability for academies that is more rigorous than the system for main-tained schools.

“The agency has also achieved signifi cant savings for the public purse in school rebuild-ing programmes — some 35 per cent cheaper than under the previous government.

“We thank the audit offi ce for its detailed report and will consider its recommendations carefully.”

It comes after it was announced that the DfE was facing a second audit offi ce probe — this time into its efforts to increase the participation of 16 to 18-year-olds in education and skills.

Things must be getting desperate at FE Week if this is to be considered a news worthy story, yawn.

I consider it a good thing that the company commissioned their own inspection to raise standards in their provision.

Impressive report too, keep up the good work Bright.

Ella Jones

Excellent article that exposes the folly of a system where three departments of state have responsibility for one poor young person — DFE, BIS and DWP.

Three ministers barely on speaking terms, a gaggle of ministers of state and junior ministers from various parties, each trying to get their moment in the sun by making announcements whose connection with reality is as fragile as their majorities.

Traineeships are Matthew Hancock’s responsibility and he has fallen far short of meeting them.

Peter Cobrin

I’m sure Neil Bates is on to something when he refuses to take an interest in becoming a ‘GFE’ (am I the only one who links that dreadful term with Alastair Campbell’s ‘bog standard schools’?), but is keen to explore the scope of centres of true vocational specialism, backed by employers. Universities have their specialist research centres: why can’t FE harbour specialist teaching centres?

Iain Mackinnon

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Editor’s comment

Chris Henwood, [email protected]

Funding agency in danger of ‘overload’ warns NAO

Skills Funding Statement leakage?

Ofsted issues warning over ‘misleading’ tweet

Ofsted issues warning over ‘misleading’ tweet

Ambitious indy plans raise prospect of new college

[email protected]

@FCDWhittaker

On the offi ce wall of K College principal Phil Frier hangs a picture of Mount

Everest.It’s a reminder of both his gruelling ascent

to its base camp last year — 5,364m above sea level — and a comforting metaphor that even the most apparently impossible of challenges can be overcome.

It’s also picture that therefore understandably draws numerous glances from the man at the helm of a debt-ridden, offi cially-inadequate college.

“The photograph reminds me that whatever the challenge, it can be achieved through teamwork,” he says.

Frier was at the Everest base camp when he received a text message asking him to take over as principal of K College.

The trek had been on his “bucket list” having retired as principal of City College Brighton in 2012. The trip also helped raise money for Brighton students to build a school in Kenya.

It’s hard to imagine the text would have offered a proposition more attractive than completing the life-threatening trek right to the top of Everest.

K College had endured industrial action over redundancy plans for up to 150 posts, and Bill Fearon, who had been at the college for a decade, had quit as principal while staff picketed at college gates.

And to top it all, it was clear fi nances at the college were not healthy. So much so, it had been subject to a notice of concern from the Skills Funding Agency.

Fortunately, Frier, a grandfather-of-three, has a taste for a challenge.

“I wondered all the way down [from Everest]: ‘Do I really want to do this?’” he says with a laugh.

He agreed, he says, because he felt his 20 years’ experience as a principal in different colleges, “could make a difference”.

“It sounds very self-indulgent really,” says the 62-year-old.

“But that’s what drives you, it’s not about the money or the other stuff, it’s about the feeling… that you can bring your core values to bear on an organisation in crisis.”

One of Frier’s fi rst moves as principal was to concede that the merger between South Kent and West Kent colleges, to form K College, had failed.

The answer now, it seemed, was to break up the college and so a tendering process for the provision and college sites was launched. It proved unsuccessful — the college didn’t sell.

And in the middle of the saga came a visit from Ofsted inspectors. They said the college was inadequate, before FE Commissioner David Collins was sent in. His recommendation the college be given administered status, thereby removing powers

from Frier, was duly enacted by Skills Minster Matthew Hancock.

Yes, it’s fair to say the college has presented a set of pressures comparable to the seemingly impossible challenge of climbing Mount Everest.

“It was enough of a challenge to be able to give a bit of purpose, but when I was doing it I thought: ‘Why didn’t I just go and lie on a beach somewhere for six weeks? Why am I doing this?,’” he says of the Everest trek.

“But, having done it, it was one of the best things I think I’ve done.”

And Frier admits to similar thoughts about the challenge of K College.

“It’s been a really tough, but interesting, job,” says Frier.

“I think people who know me would say that I never appear to be under stress, that I always appear fairly relaxed about the way things operate — but I do think being a principal is a stressful job anyway. I think the most important thing is to share the pressures.

“I have always tried to do that… I think the principals who really suffer are the ones who are so competitive they won’t talk to others about what they are going through.”

Frier came to FE through alternative education after getting involved with a children’s guidance clinic while studying politics at York University.

In 1975 he headed south to Lewes, Sussex, when his wife Cathy got a teaching job.

He began working with diffi cult teenagers in a sixth form college and taught adult education classes, but with four children he had to supplement his income as a taxi driver.

“I would come home from work on Friday and go on the taxis at 7pm until 3am, just to get the cash to support a family, and the same on Sunday evenings,” he says.

“So I spent a lot of time sitting in the taxi thinking: ‘There must be a better way of earning money’.

“I love teaching, and I would like to have remained as a teacher, but the incentive is, fi nancially, to move out — so I moved into a job

as a vice-principal.”That vice principal job, at Hampshire

College in 1989, was followed by a principal role at Park College Eastbourne. From there it was onto executive director at Sussex Downs College, before Frier started at City College Brighton in 2007, where Ofsted handed him a good rating in 2011 in what he thought might be his fi nal inspection.

But he was to play host to inspectors again late last year at K College, and describes the grade four inspection result as “the low point” of his tenure, both for himself and for staff.

The report declared the college inadequate in every headline fi eld, saying “the continued uncertainty over plans for the college’s future existence is severely and adversely affecting the learner experience”.

It did, however, praise Frier and his newly-established leadership team saying they had “stabilised a potentially chaotic situation and sought to restore fragile staff morale, with some success”.

It added: “The interim principal has focused,

rightly, on preparing the college for transition to new ownership while at the same time doing everything possible to ensure that current students benefi t from improved provision.”

“We didn’t expect an Ofsted this year because we already knew,” says Frier.

“It was almost that they decided they wanted to make a statement about where the college was, and I think that was very diffi cult.

“It was a low point for the staff and they felt they had made a really big effort in the course of the last six or seven months to get things right. It was a judgement on the past… the positive bits in it were about the last six months — but it was very diffi cult to get that message out there.

However, Frier says there have been high points.

“Getting out of the offi ce and talking to students about the experience they are having gives me a real buzz on a daily basis, as does the way the staff have actually come together to try and make this successful,” he says.

The end of the climb is in sight claims Frier, who’s optimistic the college will be split up and handed to new owners by the start of the next academic year — when he’ll be retiring again to tackle the next challenge on the bucket list.

“I want to spend three weeks living in Italy as a local, and go to the University of Sienna to learn Italian,” he says.

“My wife will come out and join me so we can order a decent meal.

“And there’s a cycle challenge fundraiser in Vietnam.”

It seems a quiet retirement isn’t on the horizon just yet.

FE Week profi le

The interim principal overseeing the break-up of the troubled K College talks to FE Week.

What’s your favourite book? The Reluctant Fundamentalist by Mohsin Hamid

If you could invite anyone to a dinner party, living or dead, who would it be?I think it would probably be President Kennedy, just because with him being shot when he was 47, I think, it’s about that unfulfi lled promise

What’s your pet hate? EastEnders — I think that’s an easy one

What do you do to switch off from work?Walking on the Downs — sometimes ending up in the pub for a swift pint.I’ve got a big family, with four children, their partners and three grandchildren — so there’s a lot of activity in the house generally, so I do like to get out walking, either just with my wife or walking aloneWhat did you want to be when you grew up?I grew up in Manchester, so when I was nine or 10 the only thing I could actually see worth doing was playing for Manchester United

It’s a personal thing

“It was a low point for the staff and they felt they had made a really big effort”

Phil Frier ~ his [email protected]

@RebeccaKCooney

Phil Frier in his offi ce at K College. Inset: Frier completes his 2013 trek to Everest Base Camp

9Monday, February 3, 2014Edition 91 @FEWeekFE Week www.feweek.co.ukMonday, February 3, 20148

The Employer Skills Survey has thrown

up some interesting statistics about the

state of the UK economy and its hunger

for trained workers. Michael Davis looks

at the survey in more depth and asks

what the findings mean for UK plc.

There’s no questioning the robustness of a survey that interviews more than 90,000

respondents. But like all statistics, the story isn’t so much in what we know; it’s what we think we can surmise.

So what do we think this report tells us about the opportunities and threats facing FE?

Recruitment is increasing. Given recent news about the growth of the economy, it’s no surprise that employment opportunities

are up.This will obviously

provide employers with recruitment chal-lenges. But more interesting will be the shift in mindset employers will need to make — from one which has (under-standably) focused on survival to one more which looks to growth, and retaining and attracting talent as part of that.

We know that training is a key

component of the workplace offer, demon-strating the value and ambition of the

business, and enabling businesses to differentiate themselves to potential employees.

We also know that what young people want from a job is changing, and working for an ethical, respon-sible employer which contributes to society is becoming increasingly important.

Colleges have a great opportunity to develop new and lasting relation-ships with business, helping them

build their reputation as a good place to work by supporting

them to make training a core component

of their workforce offer.But skills shortages are also increasing —

fast.The growth in vacancies that can’t be filled

because people do not have the required skills has risen twice as quickly as the growth in overall vacancies.

More than one-in-five vacancies is proving difficult to fill for skills reasons, up from one-in-six in 2011.

Colleges (and awarding bodies) that can harness labour market intelligence and work with employers to develop credible courses and curricula will be well placed to develop their offer and fill these skill shortage vacan-cies.

Workplace training is up — and down. Encouragingly, the proportion of employ-

ers providing training (65 per cent) has remained constant over the last two years, despite the recession.

However, the economic downturn has bought about changes in the nature of invest-ment.

While the proportion of people receiving training has increased over the past two years, the total amount employers invest in training has fallen by £2.5bn.

Employers are becoming more thrifty, often turning to alternative providers and choosing cheaper delivery methods, such as in-house and technology-based train-ing.

The debate about learning technology in FE is well underway and there are pockets of good practice. But in honesty, the FE sec-

tor has a way to go before it can claim to be cutting-edge, so there’s a clear opportunity here.

The value of training is understood. The majority of employers (71 per cent) say they will need to upgrade the skills or knowledge

of their staff in the next 12 months.Despite this (and by their own admission)

employers are not meeting their own invest-ment appetite.

A sizeable minority of them (42 per cent) want to provide more training. Getting the offer right and taking the complexity out of the system for employers may enable col-leges to unlock this latent demand.

Over the coming weeks and months the

UK Commission for Employment and Skills will be releasing of a series of “evidence tool-kits” providing detailed data for individual nations of the UK, as well as for local enter-

prise partnerships and local authorities.We will also be doing further analysis of

the findings and identifying a series of topics for more in-depth analysis.

But like all research, the value lies not in the numbers, but in what you make of them.

By interrogating this data and mashing it with other research, we can expect to gain further insights.

We are committed to making the datasets from this and other research freely acces-sible via our “LMI for All” tool later this spring. Visit our website — www.ukces.org.uk — for more information on this, or any other aspect of our work.

Michael Davis, chief executive, UK Commis-sion for Employment and Skills

Nearly a quarter of vacancies in the UK have gone unfilled because of a shortage

of much-needed skills, a survey of 91,000 UK employers has revealed.

The Employer Skills Survey, by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills (UKCES), found that 22 per cent of the 655,000 vacancies in the UK remained untaken because employers could not find workers with the right skills.

Within England, the number of skill-shortage vacancies has nearly doubled since 2009, increasing from 63,100 to 124,800.

The survey, made up of 87,572 interviews, taking in 91,000 separate businesses across all UK sectors, found that jobs in skilled trades, management, professional roles, caring, leisure and machine operating were most affected.

Among the skills needed were “oral and written communication, literacy and numeracy skills” — something which seems to have worsened since the last survey in 2011.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock said: “Employers in some sectors report persistent skills shortages which is why I have been working hard to design a skills system that is rigorous in the training it provides and responsive to the needs of employers.

“With a record number of people in jobs as our economy continues to grow we must have a skilled workforce equipped to work in a modern economy and compete effectively in the global race.”

The 200-page report, published on Thursday, January 30, also revealed that employers found 17 and 18-year-olds recruited from college were more ready for work than those of the same age recruited from school — 66 per cent of employers said school-leavers were well or very well prepared, while almost three quarters (74 per cent) said the same of college leavers.

Policy director Andy Gannon of the 157 Group, said: “The survey results are encouraging, but they demonstrate that all

Around 150 delegates at the Skills Summit in central London got a

preview of the Employer Skills Survey.Michael Davis, UK Commission for

Employment and Skills chief executive, said the survey presented “a mixed picture [with] positive trends, but also significant challenges”.

“All of these challenges need to be better understood and tackled if the UK is to have the skills needed for sustainable recovery,” he said at the event on Tuesday, January 28.

Skills Minister Matthew Hancock was also at the conference, where he announced plans to build a new nuclear

specialist college, while Skills Funding Agency executive director of provider management Marinos Paphitis said staff cuts at his organisation would not affect performance.

The agency announced a restructure late last year, leaving more than 1,000 staff uncertain of their futures

“There will be less of us... We’re going to be smarter, we’re going to do more things centrally, but we are going to have the relationships as well,” said Mr Paphitis.

“What we’re not going to stop doing is intervening where bad things happen. We have now got a systematic approach and we’re not tolerating failure.”

concerned can do more to boost training and skills levels.

“It is good that the report recognises the increased employability of college leavers, and we know that FE colleges stand ready to work… with employers and their representatives to ensure economic growth through an increasingly skilled workforce.

“In many areas, these relationships are already bearing fruit, and demonstrating the critical importance of colleges in delivering prosperity for all.”

Association of Colleges president Michele Sutton said: “The fact that employers are more positive about colleges leavers than school-leavers demonstrates clearly that gaining the high-quality qualifications colleges offer is the key to making young people more employable.

“The information that employers are reporting an increase in vacancies due to skills shortages is a real concern.

“It is proof that more vocational education is needed — whether alone or alongside academic qualifications — in order to bridge the gap.”

She added: “Colleges already play a key role in working closely with employers in their area to make sure they are providing young people with the right skills for the local jobs market, often through apprenticeships.”

The UKCES report also showed that total employer investment in training staff had fallen by 5 per cent between 2011 and 2013 (from £45.3bn to £42.9bn).

David Hughes, chief executive of the National Institute for Continuing Adult Learning, said: “This survey reinforces our concerns about handing over the ownership of the entire skills system to employers.

“To have a vibrant and effective skills system that meets the needs of business and wider society, it has to be led by a partnership of employers, learners and Government and must balance their interests.”

“If you step back from this survey and look at other evidence, including our own annual participation survey, this points to the need to stimulate informed demand for learning

from young people, adults and employers. The only way you can achieve that kind of informed demand and ensure that there are enough people with the right level of skills for a successful economy and an inclusive society is through a partnership of employers, learners, Government and colleges and training providers working together.”

University and College Union general secretary Sally Hunt, of the, said: “More than 60 per cent of the skills shortages identified by employers were ‘technical, practical or job specific’.

“It is often not that people aren’t skilled enough… but that skills need to be applied more effectively.

“It’s vital employers commit to providing necessary training for their existing employees… employers need to invest more, not less, if they want to effectively address their skills deficits.”

Neil Carberry, Confederation of British Industry director for employment and skills, said: “The flip side of faster growth is an

escalating skills crisis.“While this isn’t surprising, it makes it all

the more urgent to close the skills gaps in science, technology, engineering and maths to support the recovery.”

He added that a “sea-change quality of careers advice” would make young people “more aware of the opportunities and

rewards of working in key sectors which face skills shortages.”

The report also found that nearly half of employers across the UK (48%) admit they recruit people with higher levels of skills and knowledge than are required for the job.

Jan Hodges, chief executive of the Edge Foundation, said the high level of skills

shortages combined with issue of some workers being over-qualified for their jobs showed “young people need much better information, advice and guidance, and high quality work experience.”

“They need to know which qualifications and pathways lead to the best prospects,” she said.

Survey shows employers can’t fill 22pc of [email protected]@RebeccaKCooney

“The FE sector has a way to go before it can claim to be cutting-edge, so there’s a clear opportunity here”

Marinos Paphitis David Hughes

Matthew Hancock Pics: FE Week

Early airing for employer findings at Skills Summit

Skills shortage presents urgent opportunities for FE sector


With the government having announced

plans for secure colleges for young

offenders, Paul Phillips uses his

experience of delivering adult prison

education to outline the issues that will

need consideration.

The whole world of offender learning has faced massive change over the last 18

months with the introduction of the OLASS (Offender Learning and Skills Service) 4 ap-proach.

Essentially, that has enabled a much greater focus to be given to the skills agenda and to ensure that prisoners are equipped with the latest skills and expertise to enable progres-sion to secure work when their sentence is completed.

The transition process has not been easy but the approach taken by the government has been highly necessary.

Most recently, the government announced plans for ‘secure colleges’.

At Weston College, we are the offender learn-ing provider for a large number of prisons across the South West and the concept of secure colleges is one that is interesting, but one that also will need great planning for such a model to become successful.

From my perspective as principal, we need to take the lessons from OLASS 4 and look at what has been happening in terms of youth

custody, which is currently generally outside our remit.

The key messages from my perspective are that education has got to be the priority and the qualifi cations on offer must be those that can lead to sustainable employment or pro-gression to higher levels of study.

It is also imperative that we recognise that many offenders will either have learning dis-abilities, special educational needs or mental health needs.

Therefore the funding that follows the prisoners must ensure that they have the ad-ditional support for success.

Currently, under OLASS 4 methodologies, albeit for older prisoners, the levels of addi-tional learning support available are signifi -cantly below that required.

As the concept paper from government suggests, the secure college must achieve the very best educational provision combined with rigorous security.

If these two parameters can be achieved then there is a real change of taking the free school/academy model and creating an enviable resource for the future.

There is also the need to consider the whole environment that will be needed to impact upon such change.

So are the entrepreneurs of the future out there who can create these secure colleges?

I believe that there is a key solution which must combine the very best of OLASS 4 meth-odologies with experts in security.

Both these parameters must have equal priority in planning for the future, but equally the whole concept of youth custody needs re-examination.

If the government is serious about these proposals, then it will need to engage with outstanding learning providers with real expertise in the skills agenda.

Similarly, these providers will need to work with organisations who have proven expertise in security.

This is certainly not an easy proposition, but I believe these providers exist.

The paper from the government, entitled transforming youth custody — putting educa-tion at the heart of detention, may be the catalyst that we need in this country.

It clearly needs to be thought out in great de-tail and then of course there is the cost benefi t analysis that will be crucial.

The concept will not be cheap, but, as the green paper states, with average cost per place running from £65,000 to £212,000 per annum and with reoffending rates of at least 70 per cent, change is necessary.

The strategies announced are feasible and to be applauded. I do have a caveat however and that is use the experts from the world of FE and others to infl uence and support these changes.

Dr Paul Phillips OBE, principal, Weston College, Somerset

Lessons from experience in delivering education for imprisoned young learners

“Are the entrepreneurs of the future out there who can create these secure colleges? ”

With Skills Minister Matthew Hancock

having announced plans for a nuclear

college, Mike Robbins looks at whether

he should just have been grateful for

the existing FE offer and used it as an

industry model.

The government has announced proposals to build new specialist colleges to support

the skills training required for HS2 and the nuclear industry, but we have seen how an es-tablished training institution can evolve, adapt and innovate to deliver the new and bespoke skills required for a major civil engineering project.

The nuclear new build at Hinkley Point C represents a highly-ambitious project of inter-national signifi cance; the proposed construc-tion of two new nuclear reactors will neces-sitate a workforce of 25,000 across the ten years of the build, and clearly there is insuffi cient existing capacity within the whole of the South West, let alone Somerset itself.

A major programme of community engage-ment, skills development and training is clear-ly required, and with associated infrastructure works that include highways improvements, campus accommodation, park and rides and wharf and jetty improvements, the question is — why build a brand new, purpose-built college as well?

To do so would be to ignore the wealth of experience and expertise already available in the FE sector, particularly when it comes to science, technology, engineering and

maths disciplines.While close collaboration between industry

and the education sector on a project of this magnitude has simply not happened before, the Tier 1 contractors connected with Hinkley C are wholeheartedly embracing the fact that colleges already have the mechanisms in place to respond quickly and fl exibly to industry.

This type of partnership can lead to signifi -cant private investment in facilities within colleges to deliver skills development and training on a huge scale, and enabling them to continue with their core offer to young people even in the light of reduced government fund-ing.

The impact on the local communities that colleges serve can be substantial — in the case of Hinkley C, for example, one third of the jobs

are intended for people within a 90-minute commute, and the involvement of a coalition of South West colleges has led to aspirations being universally raised.

New ways of working often require new delivery and assessment methods, and the pri-vate investment afforded by industry partner-ships enables colleges to look far beyond the reaches of traditional classroom delivery.

Realistic working environments for specifi c construction skills — such as formwork, plant operations, excavating, scaffolding and con-crete pouring — can be created using industry-standard plant and equipment, on a scale that simply would not be possible if colleges were wholly reliant traditional funding streams.

And colleges can work together to pool expertise, share facilities and franchise pro-grammes, creating a UK-wide skills base that

will serve industry for decades to come.An early alliance with major civil engineer-

ing projects is not without risk for colleges, particularly in terms of up-front investment, but it can prove to be a very sound strategy. The benefi ts to colleges and the communities they serve are clear; but the benefi ts for the projects themselves cannot be underestimated either.

The vast array of skills training required is being placed fi rmly where it belongs — in the hands of proven experts who have often been recruited from the industries themselves — and early engagement means that the pre-paratory work has already been completed in readiness for the green light.

It is debateable whether a new college could overcome teething problems and hit the ground running, even assuming practical con-siderations such as location, planning, recruit-ment and marketing could be overcome.

It is also worth noting that the eventual employers on major infrastructure schemes come from far and wide, and to focus on a single training provider in a single location would seem inappropriate and ineffi cient — a widening of opportunity to optimal numbers of people is absolutely key to future success.

We would like to see government maximis-ing the potential of the many excellent colleges that lie along the route from London to Leeds or near the areas where nuclear new build and operations exist.

Mike Robbins, principal, Bridgwater College

Taking a leaf out of Bridgwater’s nuclear skills delivery book

“Partnership can lead to signifi cant private investment in facilities within colleges to deliver skills development and training on a huge scale”

FE Week expertsFE Week experts

FE colleagues probably have little time to watch TV and, if they do, they

may reasonably avoid anything to do with education.

I’m glad, though, that I’ve found time to watch the start of Tough Young Teachers, a new BBC3 series following six Teach First participants in three of London’s more challenging schools.

I’m glad for lots of reasons, not least

because it increases my ever-growing respect for what teaching colleagues across the country do every day. There can’t be a more valuable or under-valued job.

I’m glad, also, because it confi rms both my fears about, and delight in, education on TV.

Professor Mary Beard, talking about her experiences on Jamie’s Dream School in 2012, argued that while the series was “useful”, we “have to be very clear that we were dealing with a group of kids and teachers who, in some ways, were fi ghting for the attention of the TV cameras”.

So, while TV education can be highly entertaining, and can both shape and stimulate important debate (as well as raise teachers’ status), it cannot ever be the full picture, and we should never pretend it is.

Finally, though, I’m glad because the programme helped me crystallise some of my own puzzled thoughts about teacher training.

Previously, I’ve felt — and written here — that the profession needs to attract people from all walks of life, with all sorts of skills and backgrounds. But Tough Young Teachers has really brought home that teachers need just as robust training as doctors, fi refi ghters, soldiers, or any other professionals.

I know teachers who found their training pretty useless. I know teachers, too, who refer back to it every day.

These are issues of quality, which

arguably need addressing — but neither scenario negates the importance of training itself.

That importance is summarised by the tough young teacher who declares, after her second lesson: “I don’t know what I’m doing.”

Learning on the job is important, but it can’t be the whole package. Criticising Teach First isn’t my purpose here. The scheme has perhaps done more than anything else to encourage people towards teaching who would never have considered it before.

It just needs to give those people some more training — and I can fairly safely say that most Teach First participants, in my experience, agree. Tough Young Teachers comes at a time when the National Union of Students is running its own campaign to ensure that FE teachers still need to qualify — against a government which disagrees, and which already allows the unqualifi ed to teach in Free Schools.

My own college is clear that teachers need to be qualifi ed, and we’re glad that our Student Union agrees with the importance of this.

It’s a question, though, which is particularly apt in vocational subjects where practical experience is critical for teachers, and highly valued by students.

Proposals being developed by thinktanks and others to facilitate professional

secondments into FE will need to consider this question very carefully.

To return to Dream School, I can do no better than quote student Nana Kwame.

When asked whether subject knowledge or ability to communicate mattered more in a teacher, he responded: “You can’t pick between the two — you need someone in the middle, who knows what they’re talking about [but] can get along with you”.

The House of Commons Education Select Committee robustly defended this position, stating in 2012: “There is no clear formula for an ‘outstanding’ teacher… although good subject knowledge, overall academic ability and a range of personal and inter-personal skills are vital”.

But the committee also argued forcefully that “school-based training is vital in preparing a teacher for their future career”.

Six weeks in the summer before Lesson One cannot, with respect to Teach First, ever be enough — and Tough Young Teachers supports that position.

There’s no question that the six participants are pretty tough, not to mention a plethora of other superlatives — they just need to be trained as well.

Toughness vs training — the tools of the teaching trade

Former House of Commons Education

Select Committee specialist

Ben Nicholls is head of policy and com-

munications at London’s Newham Col-

lege. He writes exclusively for FE Week

every month.

Ben Nicholls@bnichollsukFE INSIDER


A former Sir George Monoux College student has been selected to be part

of R&B star will.i.am’s team on BBC talent show the Voice.

Jermain Jackman, aged 19, who gained top grades in BTec music at the East London-based college, sang And I Am Telling You by Jennifer Hudson to impress the coaches.

Jermain’s admiration for will.i.am inspired him to audition for the Voice.

He said: “He is one of my favourite artists, so when he was the only coach to turn around for me it felt like fate.”

Louisa Kennedy, course leader of

creative performing arts at the college, said: “Jermain is a very motivated young man and an excellent role model for young people. We are all so proud of him.”

Jermain completed his BTec in July last year, but was presented with the college’s Music Student of the Year Award and the Rising Star Award earlier this month.

Grandfather-of-two Ken Hall would daydream about becoming a children’s

author while working as an engineer in the rough and ready setting of a Sunderland docks.

His hopes for a different life were thwarted by the lack of a typewriter and the fact he struggled with handwriting.

But, having retired and returned to the classroom at the age of 78, Ken, now aged 89, mastered the word processor and so began his journey to a new career.

He said: “I have a saying that people who believe that they are too old to read a children’s fairy story are very old indeed.

“People who believe they are too old to learn new skills are also very old indeed, and I was glad to be able to show that college is not just a place for young people.

“The college courses I completed helped me turn what was a hobby and a lifelong ambition into a reality.”

Ken took a level one computer course at Sunderland College, where he was taught how to use Microsoft packages, including Word and Excel, and also the internet.

He progressed to a level two computer studies course, which he completed before his 81st birthday.

And the Sunderland pensioner has been busy ever since, typing up short stories, novels and poems, which are mostly for children. He also returned to the college recently to thank lecturers.

Some of the fi rst people to hear Ken’s stories were youngsters from Hill View Infant School, in Sunderland, said his 53-year-old daughter, Kris, an information technology lecturer at the college.

She said: “The stories are brilliant. The fi rst one was a short-story called Willie and Patch about a boy and his dog. That ended up as the fi rst chapter of a much longer adventure story, called the Sword and the Shield.

“Another of his books for people of any age, called the Fairest Rose, is about a young woman who was trapped in Germany at the outbreak of the Second World War and became a spy for the British and Americans. Those who have been lucky enough to read proof-copies of the book haven’t been able to put it down.”

Ken, who spent most of his working life

as an engineer at TW Greenwell dry dock, in Sunderland, has now completed two novels, eight shorter children’s stories, and many poems.

Grandson Christopher, 30, has designed a website — www.kenhallbooks.co.uk — to publicise his work.

FEATUREDCAMPUSROUND-UP

Ken Hall holding a copy of his book, the Fairest Rose. Inset left: Ken and son Tony sitting on a bench by the seaside in Roker, Sunderland, in around 1960 and, right, Ken reading to children at Hill View Infant School

Pensioner Ken Hall has become a

children’s writer after learning to use

computers at Sunderland College in his

late 70s. The former engineer fi nished

his second course having turned 80 years

old and then took up writing, writes

Paul Offord.

FE Week campus round-up

Left to right: Jermain Jackman singing on the Voice and, inset left, dressed-up smart for the college ceremony where he was given the Music Student of the Year Award and the Rising Star Award. Above: will.i.am

Jermain delighted to be on will.i.am’s team for The Voice

Commis chef Catherine takes a break from putting on The Ritz

From dockyard engineer to OAP author — Ken’s own inspiring story

There was nothing half-baked about the good advice an award-winning former

catering student gave to the next generation of learners at Gateshead College.

Catherine Smith, who was Gateshead College Student of the Year in 2013, secured the role of pastry commis chef at London’s prestigious Ritz Hotel after passing a level two course in professional cookery in June last year. The 29-year-old showed current catering

students how to make tasty pastry treats during her return to the college. The learners also quizzed her on preparation and cooking techniques, food hygiene, and key attributes needed to impress employers in the hospitality and catering industry.

She said: “It’s amazing to be able to go back to college. If I can help just one person to get a job in these diffi cult economic times, it will have been worthwhile.”

Catherine Smith (centre) with, from left, Gateshead College catering students Charlotte Ferguson, aged 18, Carl Potts, 25, James Dillon, 31, Aiden Jackson, Tom Allen, both 17, and Anna Kirkby, 18

sponsored by

A Greater Manchester independent

learning provider has

appointed a new chief

executive.

Julie Robinson

(pictured left) has

taken the helm

at Bolton-based

Alliance Learning

having risen

through the ranks

from sales and

marketing manager

20 years ago.

She started her career

at Gullick Dobson as an offi ce

junior before joining Alliance Learning in

1994 as a sales and marketing offi cer.

Wigan born Ms Robinson graduated

through the management structure,

reaching the post of deputy chief executive

in 2006.

She saw Alliance achieve

a satisfactory, or grade

three (renamed requires

improvement), Ofsted

rating in 2010 under

the leadership of

Steve Whitehead

(pictured right).

“Throughout my

20 years at Alliance

Learning I have gained

extensive knowledge

of the organisation and its

business,” she said.

“The staff at Alliance Learning are truly

outstanding in terms of commitment to their

learners and to our organisation and this

has recently refl ected in our outstanding

success rates of over 90 per cent and being

graded as a good provider in all

areas of curriculum by the

education watchdog in

July 2013.

“Alliance

Learning has

already devised

the blueprint

which will ensure

outstanding

inspection

results at the next

inspection.”

Ms Robinson takes

over from previous Alliance

chief Mr Whitehead, who left after

seven years to become head of education and

skills at Blackburn-based Training 2000.

Before that, he spent almost 15 years with

Accrington-based North Lancs Training

Group.

Steve Gray, chief executive

at Training 2000, said:

“Our company is on a

journey of continuous

improvement

and Steve’s new

appointment will

allow the company

to look into ways to

develop our provision,

ensuring that we can

continue to invest in staff

and facilities.

“As an ex-apprentice, Steve will

be a great ambassador for young people and

will play a key role in promoting the value

of apprenticeships to employers.”

If you want to let us know of any new faces at the top of your college or training provider, please let us know by emailing [email protected]

MOVERS SHAKERS&Your weekly guide to who’s new and who’s leaving

Do you know of any FE and skills learners older than Ken? Email [email protected] to let us know

Visit our website to claim your free guide:

Your Awarding Organisation

Entry level qualifications thatstart with the learner at theheart of the curriculum.

www.ocner.org.uk/feweek

Charity Registration No. 1114282.

OCN Eastern Region, John Tabor Building, University of Essex, Colchester Essex CO4 3SQ T: 01206 873023 E: [email protected]

The OCN Eastern Region Entry level suite has been designed as a

coherent framework which:

Download our free guide to find out how you can use them to

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of our FREEguide now.

Left to right: Jermain Jackman singing on the Voice Left to right: Jermain Jackman singing on the Voice Left to right: Jermain Jackman singing on the Voice

14 FE Week www.feweek.co.ukMonday, February 3, 2014 15Monday, February 3, 2014Edition 91 @FEWeek

To advertise with us callHannah Smith on

020 81234 778

Jobs Somerset CollegeCurriculum Area Manager - Maths and English£37,979 per annumFull-time, permanent, 37 hours per weekBased Taunton, Somerset

This critical post will oversee the delivery and development of a wide range

of Maths & English qualifications in an innovative and engaging manner,

ensuring the successful participation of all key stakeholders,

including 14-16 year old students, full-time 16-18 and 19+ students on

study programmes, part-time adults, and apprentices.

The post will have a significant impact on the future direction of the

Maths & English curriculum within Somerset College and will demonstrate

a commitment to ensuring the delivery of these subject areas is of the

highest standard across all programmes, as well as playing a key role in

developing, training and equipping teachers to deliver existing and

planned new provision.

For an application pack, please visit our website:www.somerset.ac.uk or contact Human Resources on 01823 366 457 or email [email protected]

For further information about the role please contactDavid Francis, Curriculum Director, on 01823 366410.

Applications can only be considered when submitted on a Somerset College application form.

Closing date: Midday, Friday 14 February 2014

Any person offered a position will be required to complete an enhanced DBS and, if appropriate, barred list check. Somerset College and The Work Academy are committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and young people and expects all staff and volunteers toshare this commitment.

Somerset College and The Work Academy are committed to promoting Equality & Diversity. We respect the dignity and worth of each individual.

www.somerset.ac.uk

The Speciality Coffee Association of Europe (SCAE) is a trade and consumer association for members, being companies and individuals working in the field of speciality coffee production, preparation and delivery. With members in more than 70 countries around the world who network through SCAE events and online, SCAE has national chapters in 35 countries, meeting the needs of members, working within their own national coffee traditions.

OUR VISION: We are the authority on delivering coffee excellence.

OUR MISSION: To create and inspire excellence in the coffee community through innovation, research, education and communication.

The SCAE Education Manager is a new position. Responsible for brand integrity, strategic advancement and global promotion of SCAE’s Coffee Diploma System (CDS), the successful candidate will be progressive, possesses excellent communication skills, be proficient in product management and distribution of educational content and experienced in working with a third party accredited product.

Priorities of this role include leading a team to achieve targeted sales, introducing an elearning programme, achieving world recognised accreditation for CDS and driving an audit initiative to ensure security and integrity of our education programme.

The Coffee Diploma System is a controlled and managed education curriculum, delivered through SCAE’s Authorised Trainer network, which is a collective of over 300 certified distribution partners.

SCAE Education ManagerRemuneration: Commensurate with ExperienceLocation: Office in Chelmsford but could commute from anywhere in UK

www.scae.com

To apply, please email [email protected] Date: 28th February

Chief Executive Up to £150k p.a. (dependent upon experience and performance) + Relocation Package

We see potential every day. Can you see ours?

Nine thousand students. Three FE college locations. An academy, a UTC and a reputation for outstanding delivery: the Lincoln College Group has every reason to be proud. We’re keen to build on our achievements by appointing a Chief Executive with clear ambitious vision. With a strong commitment to delivering excellence and improving the life chances of young people through education, we want to expand our reach and assure continuing success, financial viability and commercial focus in a changing educational landscape. The Board wishes to appoint a Chief Executive who can develop a shared vision and strategy to deliver sustainable growth and further expansion, diversification and development. The right candidate will bring about change; balance business risk and commercial growth; develop business principles in an educational community; and retain its integrity and moral purpose.

To be considered, you must be a capable ambassador for the College as we’ll look to you to network at all levels, including nationally, with regulators and central government. We’ll also expect you to have experience of business, industry, leadership and commercial growth, plus the ability to transfer this knowledge to the educational field. Your ability to balance leadership experience with the right values for educational outcomes will be a significant factor in your success. For more information and how to apply, please visit www.lincolncollegechiefexec.co.ukIf you would like to have a confidential discussion about this role and for any questions about the recruitment process please contact our retained consultants at Penna Executive Search: Maggie Hennessy on 07949 948092 or Julie Towers on 07764 791736.Closing date: 17 February 2014.

LCBT is a Specialist Vocational College based in Central London. It was established in 1995 for Beauty, Retail, Holistic and related sectors and remains the largest Beauty Therapy College nationally, widely renowned within the Beauty Industry. LCBT has now expanded to offer a wide range of Employability Training, Apprenticeships and, a range of Health & Fitness and Teacher Training courses. We have a number of Senior Management Team (SMT) roles that we are looking to recruit. Check out our website at http://www.lcbt.co.uk/careers/ for further information on the below positions or regarding any other recruitment, or alternatively please send your CV to [email protected] or call us on 0207 208 1393. IT MANAGER c.£45,000The IT Manager will ensure the streamlined operation of the IT Department in alignment with the College’s business objectives. With full budgetary control, line-management responsibilities and management of the IT infrastructure of LCBT, this IT Manager will oversee all the IT related activities and operations of the College, as well as provide administrative direction and support for daily activities of the IT department. HEAD OF MIS £45,000 - £50,000The Head of MIS will possess a thorough understanding of the funding and grants procedures involved and ensure processes are in place to monitor, audit and control compliance with all aspects of the legislation. They will support and provide data collation as requested by the senior management team, responding to the needs of the Senior Management Team (SMT) and external funding providers. APPRENTICESHIPS MANAGER c.£45,000The Apprenticeships Manager will work with others inside and outside LCBT to create, develop, implement and maintain a viable Apprenticeship provision. The Apprenticeships Manager will ensure the department meets stringent targets that include enrolment, retention and success measures. The Apprenticeship provision serves a wide variety of different clients in varying sectors.

OUR ADDRESS LCBT, 47 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET, LONDON. W1F 7JP

The REED NCFE Partnership is currently recruiting an Innovation Project Manager on a permanent basis to help us achieve our ambition that...

‘Every year, we will help one million learners prepare for the transition from learning into work’

The focus of the role is to innovate, plan and project manage to ensure the successful development of products and services, primarily by outsourcing development work to a team of external contractors and suppliers. The role will be based at our new office in Longbenton, Newcastle upon Tyne.

If you want to be integral in growing, shaping and innovating REED NCFE then send your CV to Matt Brown [email protected] closing date for this vacancy is : Friday 7 February (midday)

For questions about this role please contact Matt Brown, HR Officer on 0191 605 3304 or visit our website www.reed.ncfe.org.uk/careers

Innovation Project Manager £30,000 - 50,000Permanent

Skills & Learning Manager

Based in Oxford Ref: XXSLM697STemporary appointment to 31 March 2015 £38,442-£41,148Applications are invited from experienced managers of Community Learning provision. This is an exciting opportunity to implement Oxfordshire Skills and Learning Service’s (OSLS) new community learning strategy, to grow the established class offer, introduce new community-led learning opportunities and work with partner providers to commission provision. You will take forward the work of the Oxfordshire Community Learning Trust by providing strategic leadership of this partnership, which includes all SFA Community Learning-funded providers in the county. You will lead the team of curriculum staff who make up the Delivery and Commissioning arms of the Community Learning Team and will be part of the service’s Senior Leadership team. Duties will include significant cross-service responsibilities, including leadership of the OSLS CL working group and negotiating and monitoring targets for CL-funded provision across OSLS in Social Inclusion and Workforce DevelopmentYou should be familiar with the policy agenda contained in ‘New Challenges, New Chances’ and be able to demonstrate innovative approaches to meeting it which are grounded in successful prior experience.Closing Date: 12 February 2014Interview date: 27 February 2014For further details and information on how to apply, visit http://jobs.oxfordshire.gov.uk/

We are an equal opportunities employer and we offer generous holidays, development opportunities, a final salary pension scheme and a range of family-friendly policies.

Competitive salary plus attractive benefits packageFor full details on this great opportunity, please go online to: www.feweek.co.uk/jobs/view/general-manager/

Any further questions or to apply for the role please contact our executive search consultant Joe Hansen at Lime Search:

Closing date: 3rd March 2014

Phone: 020 3058 0672 Email: [email protected]

Humberside Engineering Training Association Ltd

GENERAL MANAGER

16 FE Week www.feweek.co.ukMonday, February 3, 2014

Diffi culty:

MEDIUM

Diffi culty:

EASY

FE Week Sudoku challenge

How to play:

Fill in all

blank squares

making sure

that each row,

column and

3 by 3 box

contains the

numbers 1 to 9

Solutions:

Next week

1 3 6 8 7 4 9 2 5 5 9 2 1 6 3 7 8 4 4 7 8 2 5 9 1 3 6 3 6 4 5 9 8 2 7 1 2 5 7 6 3 1 8 4 9 9 8 1 7 4 2 6 5 3 6 4 3 9 8 7 5 1 2 8 2 5 3 1 6 4 9 7 7 1 9 4 2 5 3 6 8

9 1 8 6 2 7 3 4 5 4 5 3 9 8 1 6 7 2 7 2 6 3 5 4 9 1 8 5 8 1 4 9 7 2 3 6 3 6 4 1 2 8 5 9 7 2 7 9 5 3 6 1 8 4 1 3 2 7 4 5 8 6 9 8 9 7 2 6 3 4 5 1 6 4 5 8 1 9 7 2 3

Diffi culty:

MEDIUM

Last Week’s solutions

5 1 3 9

2 8 4

8 7 5 1 3 1 5

1 2 2 7 5

4 9 3 2 4 3 2 7 1 4 5

7 8 5 6 2

4 9 2 1 1 3 6 2

6 7 9 7 2 8

3 8 1 9 7 4

4 3 2

Diffi culty:

EASY

Spot the difference to WIN an FE Week mug!

Spot five differences. First correct entry wins an FE Week mug. Text your name and picture of your completed spot the difference to 07969 166 374. Last week’s spot the difference winner was Samantha Selbie, from SSVQ in Motherwell.

T&C’s: This offer is only valid to persons not currently subscribing to FE Week. No payment details are required for this free trial. The offer only applies to the FE Week Subscription and not Gold Membership. The offer only includes Edition 91, 92 and 93. No further

editions will be sent until a confirmation has been received requesting a 12 month subscription. Offer only valid to UK residents. Postage address can be either personal or work. Only one free trial per person. Offer ends Monday 24th February.

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